The debate on Kim Leadbeater's Bill on assisted dying is this week, with the first sitting Friday of this Parliamentary session. It is certainly all anyone has been talking about this week, and emotions are running very high indeed.
We have also been marking White Ribbon day and the 16 days of activism to raise awareness of domestic abuse. I hosted an event with Lloyds Banking Group to highlight the work they have done on prevention of financial abuse. It gave me a good opportunity to catch up with the charity Surviving Economic Abuse and discuss my concerns around housing associations and their failure to support survivors of economic, and other sorts of abuse, extricate themselves effectively from joint tenancies.
It was great to see Paddy Power in Westminster teaming up with leading darts players and Prostate Cancer UK for the Westminster Darts Championship. It was a fun night with a very serious message. This year the Bigger 180 Campaign will support Prostate Cancer UK's Transform Trial, a groundbreaking research project which will hopefully pave the way for a national screening programme. I have had a great deal of correspondence recently about the need for this sort of screening for men, and it is encouraging to see sport being used to highlight the importance of regular checks. I was also somewhat instrumental in helping the event happen, as security in Parliament really didn't like darts.
I was also at the inaugural meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Motor Neurone Disease on Tuesday. APPGs sometimes come in for a lot of criticism, but many are brilliant opportunities for cross party MPs to really work on an issue. MND affects up to 5000 people in the UK, and although rare I am conscious of a number of Romsey residents living with MND. They include Nick Smith who came up to the event in Parliament this week to highlight to MPs his experiences. We had a chat about disabled facilities and how important it is that accessibility is considered in the design of everything, to make sure those with physical challenges can enjoy activities and spaces the rest of us take for granted.